It is known that sprouted wheat produces a poorer quality of flour compared with that obtained from unsprouted wheat. When such poorer quality flour is used in the baking of bread, the bread so obtained has a certain stickiness and this causes trouble when slicing machines are used to slice loaves of such bread. Sprouting of wheat is associated with an increase in the amount of the alpha-amylase II, a starch degrading enzyme.
Since the increased level of alpha-amylase is a major factor associated with wheat sprouting, it has been implied by different authors that it should be possible to improve baking properties of sprout-damaged wheat flour by reducing alpha-amylase activity. A number of different physico-chemical (increased temperature, low pH) and chemical (surfactants, heavy metals, chelators) factors have been studied as potential alpha-amylase inhibitors or inactivators as reviewed by Meredith and Pomeranz, (1984) in Advances in Cereal Science and Technology (Y. Pomeranz, ed.), pages 239-320, AACC, St. Paul, Minn.
A number of the investigated factors were found to suppress alpha-amylase effects. However, some of them affected not only alpha-amylase but also sensitive gluten proteins by changing their structure and functional properties important for baking performance and caused deterioration of other technological characteristics of bread. Moreover, the application of different chemicals such as alpha-amylase inhibitors or inactivators studied as food additives is limited due to the toxicity of some of them. Therefore, an application of a non-toxic alpha-amylase inhibitor that could be safely added to the flour from sprouted wheat to eliminate an excess of alpha-amylase activity would be very much desirable.